More than a million items have now been banned by Amazon because their sellers wanted to make a profit from the spread of the coronavirus.

Amazon removes a million coronavirus “cures” – First things first:

Some sellers wanted to take advantage of the spread of the coronavirus and the panic of some people. They offered items on Amazon whose effectiveness has not been proven. In addition, prices skyrocketed, which should make the health business particularly lucrative.

“Miracle Cure” on Amazon

BBC News reported that the platform had banned more than a million articles that profited from the spread of the coronavirus.
The articles promised protection against infection or even a cure. Hygiene items such as face masks or disinfectants were offered at extremely high prices. A search for “coronavirus” on Amazon brought up these same products, but also books about viruses and vitamin C tablets.

The World Health Organization (WHO) spoke out about misleading offers, including fake treatments. Now the platform has obviously reacted and removed these products from the website.

Amazon has not announced exactly which items were removed.

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Fair pricing guidelines not observed

Amazon has a fair pricing policy that sellers of items must adhere to. Now the platform also took action against sellers whose prices for certain items suddenly skyrocketed. This particularly concerned hand disinfectants and face masks.

The browser add-on “Keepa” displays price curves for offers on Amazon. For example, a hand disinfectant was offered here on February 29th for 38 euros. Just a week earlier, on February 22nd, it was available for 8.89 euros. On February 28th the price was 59 euros.

Some users tweeted their experiences:

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Seller believes Amazon's price regulation is arbitrary

A seller on Amazon presents the other side of these pricing guidelines a little differently. He believes they are arbitrary, as he to Wired , because his price offers were sometimes removed even though he would have chosen the cheapest option. “Sometimes when I lowered the price below a certain level, it would jump back up,” he told Wired. Amazon itself did not comment on this case.

Source: Der Standard
Article image: Shutterstock / By Hadrian


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